See our feature of Miriam’s Archeology of Desire
Miriam is the Editor and Publisher of Santa Fe Poetry Broadside
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More poetry by Miriam in Spring 2000
Miriam participated in our roundtable discussion on American Poetry in Spring 2000
Miriam is Founding Editor of Santa Fe Poetry Broadside
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At bn.com:
Miriam Sagan
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Shade
Sitting in the shade
I saw, crossing the leafy square,
My old friend, who sat
And talked with me a while
Insignificantly, of this and that
The coast, childhood.
And although he had a good wife
And I an excellent husband
I knew in the oddly intimate moment
That if we’d turned a different corner of fate
We could have just as easily
Been husband and wife
In another life, or in this life…
* * *
Fucking in a chair
Rush-bottomed, my legs
Drawn up to let you in
Outside it is also hot
this laundry on the drying rack
might be our shadow
Freed from our ankles
Like angels
Of copulation.
In the House of Fallen Pears
In the house of fallen pears
No one kissed me
In the house of windfall apples
I received not even a glance
In the house of cosmos and sunflowers
The husband wrote over the wife’s words
In the house of the sad poet
A child drowned in the acequia
In the house of stolen peaches
I took one for myself
I did not bring it home to you
I ate it alone, and spit the stone
On to the palm of my hand
Where the lines converge, of life and love
In the house of fallen pears
In the house of the ripe green pears
36 Moons
after Yoshitoshi
1. reading by moonlight
the unraveling
letter
2. moon through the crumbling window
3. moon through the bamboo lattice
4. bag lady moon
5. red-light district moon
women sitting in windows
like fruit baskets
6. moon of the lonely house
7. moon of the Beverly Hills mansion
8. pointing a finger at the moon,
stop showing off—
you think that answered
my question?
9. moon at Otowi Bridge
the tearoom woman
10. moon on the Animas River
class three rapids. . .
11. whiskey-colored moon
staggering up the stairs
in the air above Manhattan
12. hear her breasts in the bath. . .
13. Chrysler tower
art deco moon
14. there must also
be a moon in Nebraska
over what you imagine:
stubbled wheat fields
15. you used to call this
“the floaty life”
just hanging around
the old apartment
16. living for the moment
if not exactly in it
17. Lady Chiyo
with her broken bucket
that does not reflect
the moon
18. wood block print
of the beautiful courtesan
in the remote village
19. or a page
torn from “Genjii”
20. an iron cauldron
21. frying pan moon
22. moonlight on snow. . .
it must be
early morning
23. moon
over Sun Mountain
24. the moon and smoke
25. or the moon that cast our shadow
away from us
out walking those darkened roads
26. the first thing
I ever realized was beautiful
moon rising
when I was four years old
over the dunes
at Fox’s Bottom Beach
27. the moon of the enemy’s lair—
a bit of fractured
narrative
28. the moon men walked. . .
was it this moon?
29. lost button.
hole
where the tooth ache
once was
30. samurai’s horned helmet
31. outhouse door
32. the face of the clock
without hands
33. white moon
beneath thumbnail
34. small of punctuation
35. it repeats
diminishes
grows
maybe you were right after all
36.
hazy moon
hazy moon
